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I Maked Songs!

Brief interlude from my Neopoleon Creation Story...

I haven't posted about my music (or the music I make with Best Friend Felix), but I had an email exchange today that got me thinking about it. It's all sitting around on various drives, and I rarely bother with it. I have no idea why I do that.

Found a few of the songs today, and went through them one by one. Most are unfinished. Some were 90% inspiration and 100% not knowing how to run the recording equipment properly (when Felix wasn't around, that is - I was a mess when it came to plugging the right things into other things and then flipping switches that did stuff that didn't electrocute me).

Others are much closer to being done, though I don't think we ever finished a song.

Regardless, I was thinking of times in the past when I posted our stuff. I love some of it and I was excited to share it. Music is good. I might be understating things a tad, but you know me - that's what I'm all about - understatement and subtlety.

I got to one song in particular, and just started laughing. It's a movie cliche to say things like, "It was my greatest success... and also my greatest failure."

But this song was my greatest success and my greatest failure.

It was downloaded more times than any other song I posted. There was even a remix by Jason Olson.

I was on the road, and that day/week/whatever I was in Denver. I got to my hotel room and something about it amplified boredom. It had a green carpet. I don't like it when hotels have green carpet. I like green. I'm not dissing green. It's a fine and necessary color.

I just don't like it when hotels have green carpet.

To show that green carpet who was boss, I wrote a song in about twelve minutes to prove how not bored I was, and then I performed it to an open-air recording device. The song had a rhythm section - also my performance - that consisted of my hands and a waste basket I had turned upside-down.

That's it. And, not only was it a crap song performed on a trash can, there's no air in Denver and I suspect the lack of discretion I showed in writing, performing, recording, and posting the song in about the hour it took could have been due to oxygen deprivation.

The song is about Chris Sells and his trip to Burning Man. It's probably the worst song I've ever written, and I think it's had around 7,000 downloads (that was when I was still paying attention to this stuff back in 2005). I doubt it's had many recently, but you never know.

On the other end of the popularity spectrum is a song I love. It's simple, but rather pretty. A world apart from the Burning Man song.

Yet that Burning Man song destroyed it in the ratings. The song I love also didn't get a Jason Olson remix.

Here:

- Rory's Favorite Song that He's Ever Written: She Hears

- Extremely Popular Song Written and Performed Under the Influence of Oxygen Deprivation: Chris Sells at Burning Man

- Jason Olson Remix of the Burning Man Song: Just Plain Weird

I still can't believe it. The song with the wastebasket... a wastebasket.

This is one of those things that interrupts the normal functioning of my brain. It stutters: A wastebasket... a WASTEBASKET... WASTEBASKET WASTEBASKET WASTEBASKET!!!

Enjoy the wastebasket.

Published Tuesday, November 06, 2007 6:44 PM by Rory

Filed Under: General

Comments

	KEM said: Love the song. See my coment under Day 2. November 6, 2007 7:07 PM
	Eric said: I like the wastebasket one better. She hears is an okay song, but it's trying to be a real song, and therefore gets compared to all the other real songs out there. While "Dancin'" is only what it is. The remix loses a lot of the elemental power that the original has. So, the reaction you're getting is about not the goodness of the song, but the power of the performance. Also, I think your vocals on "burning" (despite the technical limitations) sound much better, while the ones on "she hears" are too processed for my taste (and I don't think your voice needs it). November 7, 2007 2:24 PM
	Rory said: KEM - "Love the song." Thanks :) November 7, 2007 2:37 PM
	Rory said: Eric - "She hears is an okay song, but it's trying to be a real song, and therefore gets compared to all the other real songs out there." I hadn't ever thought about it like that. I wonder if it has anything to do with my more or less constant inability to be serious about anything. I have my weird breakdowns, but otherwise keep most of my emotionally baggage out of the way. Especially this year where I've tried not to think about it at all. The Burning Man song is much more in character for the persona I use for the blog. I'm goofy when I'm doing anything that involves stuff like this - the blog, the podcast, Channel 9 videos (when I wasn't feeling horrible, anyway), and even the MSDN Events talks. "She Hears" is very not goofy. The processed bit - it's definitely the most polished recorded Felix and I did with each other. I'm generally a total mess - there's buzzing, things sometimes get muddy, a guitar might sound feeble because I don't know how to biggify it. We had a good time, though. I went in with the song already written (I never do that because I'm such a slacker), but I didn't plan on doing the vocals the way we did. It started off with one track to back up the main vocals - matched to the original. Gives it more depth. But, after that, we added more one by one just to see what would happen. There are some harmonies that make me cringe, but others that make me feel demmed good. If we had any discipline at all, it would have been nice to have gone back and subtracted the tracks that took away from the song. We couldn't do that, though, because it would have brought us that much closer to finishing a song, and that would have broken our several year streak of abandoning projects right in the middle :) Thanks for telling me what you thought - most people say things like, "It reminded me of a cross between Tiny Tim and Abba" or something like that. Actually describing what about the song you didn't care for helps. Now that I think about it, your critique might come from frustration you've experienced in the past with all the stuff you've worked on. It doesn't help for someone to say, "I don't like [product/project X]," whereas you might be able to address an issue if the person bothers to be a little more specific. Word to the you. November 7, 2007 2:47 PM
	Peter said: Personally, "First Song" is my favourite "real" Rory song. Chris Sells at Burning Man rocks however. And there's all the context and overhead to talk about as well. Chicks love context. November 8, 2007 5:42 PM
	Tee said: :D It was so nice to hear your singing again, Rory. I think it made my day!! November 15, 2007 9:41 PM
	Chris Sells said: I love the Burning Man song and the fact that you made it with a waste basket makes me love it all the more... : ) November 27, 2007 6:38 PM
	Celes said: Very cool. You have a good voice and no I personally don't mind that they sound like... songs. They're interesting and different, even if they follow the conventional format of music (ie-song). But I don't know how credible I am, especially with the subject of 'songs sounding like songs'. Just ask Geo. I never properly appreciated the (at least) hour long unedited spontaneous noise music clips he used to send me. I mean, I'd try to listen to them like reading stream of consciousness poetry, but I still always had a criticism that had to do with listenability (because after all, even stream of consciousness poetry has to make you want to keep reading) which usually prompted him to say something to the effect- that I just wouldn't understand. So take my compliment for what it is... from a person who often likes songs that qualify as somewhat resembling songs. I think that makes me a conformist... or republican... or even a baby seal clubber. That's it. Ban me from Neopoleon. I club baby seals. - Cindy - November 27, 2007 6:47 PM

I Maked Songs!

Comments

KEM said:

Eric said:

Rory said:

Rory said:

Peter said:

Tee said:

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Celes said:

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